Illumination devices are employed in a wide variety of fields and applications. In the medical and dental fields illumination devices are employed in connection with illumination of tissues, teeth, and other materials. In dentistry, halogen bulbs have been employed for illumination of teeth and gum. Halogen lights have a color temperature of between about 3200° Kelvin (K) to about 4700° K.
A disadvantage of halogen illumination is that the color temperature is substantially constant and different color temperatures are desirable for different purposes. For example, a color temperature in the order of 5800° K is desirable for surgical procedures and other dental work, while a color temperature in the order of 6800° K is desirable for color matching. In the examination of gums, a color temperature of between about 3200° K and 4700° K is desirable. Halogen illumination is generally used for this purpose. In other areas of dentistry also different illuminations and different wavelengths are used for specific operations. For example to cure ultraviolet adhesives a light having wavelength between about 400 nanometers (nm) and about 500 nm is required. Blue lights, at a wavelength of about 430 nm, have been successfully used to detect oral cancers. Avoiding inadvertent curing of ultraviolet curable adhesives requires avoiding illumination at wavelengths of less than about 550 nm.
Accordingly, current illumination technology requires that in the field of dentistry a plurality of different light sources are required for proper illumination. This is both expensive and requires considerable floor space.
Hence, there is a need in the industry for a compact, low-cost illumination device that is suitable for projecting a desired color or temperature illumination onto a desired location.